I played the game, so just shut up

I'm not a huge NBA fan, but this story about Scottie Pippen drew my attention yesterday.

It seems Pippen made a comment that LeBron James might eventually be the greatest player in NBA history--greater even than Michael Jordan.

That's not the interesting part of the story. If Pippen believes LeBron is that good, he's certainly entitled to it. What's more interesting is what he tweeted to fans who disagreed with his assessment:

For all of you that don't know I played the game you keep watching and cheering.

Here we go again--another former athlete who thinks that just because they played the game, their ability to evaluate talent is far superior to the ability of anyone else. Further, they think everyone else should just shut up.

Pippen could have easily been a former NFL player saying the same thing. Ryan Leaf famously remarked that only players could really understand.

The antichrist to this view is, of course, Matt Millen. A Pro Bowler and NFL champion four times over, Millen was, at best, a below average talent evaluator. One NFL executive even remarked that Millen had made more draft mistakes than anyone else had in two centuries.

The list goes on and on, from former quarterback Trent Dilfer saying Jimmy Clausen was a better quarterback than Sam Bradford to former cornerback Eric Allen saying that he would have drafted Matt Leinart ahead of both Vince Young and Jay Cutler.

It seems that being able to throw a 20-yard deep out doesn't make you a world-class talent evaluator, not that it should surprise anyone. One is a physical skill; the other is mental.

Throwing down the I-played-the-game card is an easy out for the athlete turned analyst. At the first hint of criticism, you can circle the wagons and surround yourself with a cocoon that only few can enter.

If you have ever followed Scottie Pippin after his basketball career ended he has showed an extreme jealousy of Michael Jordan. He once declared he was better than Jordan&#8230....... Scottie was a great defender and team player but his offense and willpower was light years behind MJ.

Posted by Dennis Mitchell on 2011-05-29 02:28:34

haha I had this argument with someone else on MHR the other day.

Posted by shyandobese on 2011-05-28 21:21:40

I mostly agree. However, I do think there is a very large functional difference between projecting future performance of young players based on potential talent versus evaluating actual performance of established players.

For instance, it was much easier at the beginning of the NBA season to evaluate the talent level of the Miami Heat team full of veteran stars, than the Bulls or Thunder centered around young, but promising, players.

I also feel like there is much greater difficulty evaluating athletes in highly coordinated team sports like Football, versus more fluid team sports like Bball or Hockey, or especially an individual sport.

Wait a minute, did I somehow just defend GM Matt Millen? I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Posted by gdubya on 2011-05-28 21:09:48

Totally agree. My question to your all knowing dudeness is this: From the former athlete turned analyst&#8217s perspective, what&#8217s the cut-off? Pro? At what level pro? If I played in the CFL, can I not comment because I never played NFL, even though its still Pro? D1 athletics is pretty competitive too, no?

Posted by RalphW on 2011-05-28 19:49:11

FIE, I think your comment was funnier than the whole piece! Ten minutes later, I&#8217m still laughing. Best comment&#8230ever.

Posted by TJ Johnson on 2011-05-28 19:06:39

TJ I would tell you this is a great and funny article, but I&#8217ve never been a blogger so I can&#8217t comment.